Apple's new wireless headphones stay in Tim Cook's ears when he dances. But can the pricey pods stand up to even more strenuous activities, like running and cycling?

Australian marathon runner Daniel Garcia put the $159 gadget to the test by running a windy 10K in Victoria. Prior to the race, he swapped his Jaybird X2 Bluetooth headphones for Apple's AirPods, which he acknowledged "could be an expensive test."

"I never could wear[Apple's wired] EarPods before; they always would fall out," he said in a video (below), blaming the floppy cord that connected the accessory to his phone.

In contrast, Cupertino's tiny white buds are wireless, sporting only an inch-long stem. They come in a smooth white case, and last five hours on a single charge; that case doubles as a battery pack, allowing for a total of 24 hours of listening.

"They feel loose, but they didn't budge at all; they're still sitting there in my ears," Garcia said between breaths. "I guess also you're maybe feeling a bit different because you just spend 220 [Australian] bucks on these things."

In PCMag's review, we found that the AirPods "feel like a big step for wireless in-ear audio—but it's more about innovations and features and less about audio performance."

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Expected for delivery by the end of October, Apple initially delayed shipments, claiming it needed "a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers."

The headphones finally became available online on Tuesday (ship times have slipped to six weeks), and should hit brick-and-mortar shelves before Christmas. You'll need an Apple device running the latest version of iOS 10, watchOS 3, or macOS Sierra to connect.

Take good care of those earbuds: Without an AppleCare+ option, AirPods rely on the standard one-year warranty, which covers problems like batteries losing capacity. Out-of-warranty service, meanwhile, costs $49 for repair or replacement of a single AirPod or charging case battery. Replacing a lost or broken pod or holder is even more expensive: $69 per piece.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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